It is sometimes useful to be able to deactivate a security measure during the production, distribution, sale (return), and disposal chain. For example, in retail, security tags that trigger a theft alarm at exit gates are deactivated at the point of sale. Return fraud occurs when items are stolen from a store and then returned for a refund, facilitated by lenient return policies, e.g. no receipt requirement.
It would be beneficial, therefore, to have a covert deactivation feature in the traceless system to identify an item that has rightfully been paid for. It is possible to remove or obscure the traceless signature by scratching off or adding an absorber, but these measures will likely leave visible marks.
Some reader based authentication systems expect the marker response of a marked item within both a low and a high limit. See commonly-assigned, copending U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 13/094,931 and 13/094,945. A method and apparatus are needed to deactivate traceless systems.